


Pad Thai and Other Kitchen Disasters

by meils121



Category: Leverage
Genre: Cooking, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 14:05:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13101750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meils121/pseuds/meils121
Summary: Parker and Hardison want to show Eliot how much they appreciate him.  It doesn't go quite as planned.





	Pad Thai and Other Kitchen Disasters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [benjaminrussell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/benjaminrussell/gifts).



            It’s been nine months and six days since Parker and Hardison became Parker and Hardison and Eliot.  Parker keeps tracks of these things.  Not because she particularly cares about anniversaries or important dates, but because it makes everything neater in her brain.  She likes having her brain neat.

            So it’s not an anniversary, not yet, and it’s not a birthday or holiday or anything special at all.  Which is why it’s the perfect day to surprise Eliot - made even more perfect by the fact he’s out all afternoon.  Doing what, Parker’s not certain, but that’s not really the part that matters, if you ask her.

            “I want to do something for Eliot.”  She says to Hardison when he appears from his video game den to get some orange soda.  

            “What for?”  Hardison asks, getting that slightly panicked look on his face that means he thinks he’s forgotten it’s Eliot’s birthday or something.

            “Just because.  I like Eliot.  And I want to show him that.”

            “I - yeah.  I’m on board with that.  What are we doing?”

            And that’s the thing.  Because Parker’s not exactly sure what to do for Eliot.  She thinks for a minute, running through the options in her head.  “We’re going to cook dinner.”  She says, because Eliot likes food and he likes them and he’ll have two things that make him happy then.  

            Hardison doesn’t exactly look thrilled with her idea.  “I can make Hot Pockets.”  He said.  “That’s it.  And Eliot threw my stash out months ago.”

            “So?”

            “And your main diet consists of cereal and chocolate.”

            Parker shrugs and eyes the kitchen.  It’s not a place she spends a ton of time, unless she’s in there keeping Eliot company while he cooks.  “There are recipe books.”  She says.  “We’ll just follow one of them.”

            It takes twenty minutes to just agree on a recipe.  Hardison veteos anything that needs to be minced, because he says both of them need their fingers too much to risk chopping one off.  Parker concedes that might be true.  

            They end up with a recipe for Pad Thai.  It’s got lots of ingredients Parker’s never heard of, but she actually likes Thai food and Eliot has fond memories of his time there.  Well, mostly fond.  

            They have to go to the local Asian market to even find half the ingredients, and it’s later than Parker thought it would be when they finally make it back to the apartment, loaded down with bags of fish sauce and tamarind paste and mung bean sprouts.

            They make the sauce easily enough, but when Parker goes to taste it, the fish sauce is so overwhelming they end up adding a little extra sugar.  It shouldn’t make that much of a difference - and besides, Parker firmly believes that sugar makes everything better.  

            The noodles are a bit of a challenge, because neither of them have ever made noodles this way before.  By the time the noodles are soft, they’ve congealed into one giant block of noodles.  

            “Maybe it’ll break up once we put it back over heat.”  Hardison offers, because there’s nothing in Eliot’s recipe about what to do in case of a noodle brick.

            It sounds reasonable enough to Parker, so they continue.  They actually manage to cook the shrimp and chicken without problem, but things come to a very messy end when they get to the part where everything needs to be combined.

            “It says toss the noodles in the sauce.”  Parker says.  “You do it.”

            Hardison takes the offer pan handle and attempts the motion they’ve seen Eliot do a thousand times.  But, where Eliot always manages to get the food back into the pan, Hardison’s attempt sees the block of noodles, sauce, and about twenty tiny shrimp go flying through the air.  They splatter across the floor and counter.  The noodle brick finally breaks up when it hits the closest cabinet.  Half of it is still stuck to the cabinet door.  The other half is on the floor.

            Of course, Eliot chooses that moment to walk in.  He stops dead at seeing Parker and Hardison in the kitchen.  They’re both frozen.  Eliot’s very particular about his kitchen.  Things have to go in certain places.  Parker’s sure she’s made a horrible mistake by ever suggesting they cook something for Eliot.  He’s going to be furious that they’ve messed up his kitchen so badly.

            But Eliot just soaks in the scene for a minute before bursting out laughing.  “Pad Thai might have been a bit ambitious for your first cooking adventure.”  He says.  

            “The noodles turned into a lump.”  Hardison says.  “I went to toss them and -”

            “And this happened.”  Eliot looks around and shakes his head.  “Why were you cooking?”

            Parker’s feeling a bit down.  Her surprise for Eliot turned out a mess.  “We wanted to surprise you.  Because we like you.  And you like cooking.”

            Eliot smiles.  “Thanks, Parker.  Alec.”  He says, like they actually managed to serve him a full meal and not cover his kitchen in Pad Thai.  “That’s sweet.”

            They end up ordering a pizza and watching a movie, and it turns out that’s just as nice.  

            Later that week, a new recipe book gets added to the kitchen shelf alongside all of Eliot’s cookbooks.  It’s labeled “Parker and Hardison’s Easy Recipes” and is filled with recipes that shouldn’t cause too much of a mess in the kitchen.

 


End file.
